I didn’t plan a car rental in advance, we decided that we would find a car locally, as we had read that there was no problem with that. Note that Mexico is definitely not Greece or the coast of Turkey, and also not the city of Tbilisi, where everything is literally dotted with rental cars. There are cars and agencies, but still, you should look for them through google.

Since our trip was through 3 cities: Cancun, Playa del Carmen and Tulum, we decided to take a car. We took a car already in Playa del Carmen, at the end of our stay in this resort and just before we started visiting Tulum.

We planned so that going to Tulum we will need a car, and we will also see on the way and when we live there, a lot of attractions

How to choose a car or order a rental I described in the article at the link.

Let’s rent a car in Playa del Carmen

Through google search and recommendations, we book a car on the America rent a car website. Having looked through the options I calculated that it would be cheaper for me to pay 50 US dollars extra and return the car at Cancun airport, as to drive the car to Playa del Carmen, return by bus to Tulum, then take the family to the airport by bus the next day, I will get more than 200 dollars.

Another experience: my friend took the car twice at the Cancun airport. The first time he took and drove around on excursions, then returned the car and moved to Playa del Carmen, after 5-7 days, before leaving for Tulum, again drove to Cancun, took the car and successfully moved to Tulum, and at the end of the vacation, turned in the car at the airport in Cancun.

How I booked

I formed a request on the website of the operator America rent a car, late at night and I received an email. I booked today for after tomorrow. Unfortunately nobody contacted me in the morning, so at 09-00 I started to write to WahtsApp, and then I called back and they said that the application is seen, but the confirmation will be sent soon.

A couple hours later the confirmation came with an address in Playa del Carmen.

On the site there is an option to order a car with payment or without payment, I chose of course without payment, paid everything on the spot.

Getting a rental car

At the appointed time I arrived at the office of the car rental company in Playa del Carmen. There was one manager and one customer, I waited for about 30 minutes, not fast(((.

When it was my turn, they printed out the contract in Spanish, I had to ask in English to understand, charged my card and blocked the deposit on my credit card.

The car inspection is done in front of the office with another manager, he takes a photo of the car in a tablet and clarifies my email, to send me photos.

In my case, the car was Changang with air conditioning and automatic transmission, by the way, the car was given out exactly what I ordered.

Returning the car

We return the car at the airport of Cancun. We unload our bags in the terminal and go to a separate parking lot of the company. They have an office next to the airport. In the office the car is taken in 5 minutes and I wait for a free shuttle to the terminal, after 15 minutes the shuttle arrives and takes me and other clients to the airport.

Refueling the car

Perhaps this is a separate quest. While there are plenty of gas stations, we refueled several times on the highway. Upon entering, you are waved at by every gas station attendant.
Adventures begin a little later, when they do not want to accept credit cards, under the pretense that the terminal does not work. However, they will gladly take US dollars from you as payment.

When I read reviews about gas stations, I was a little shocked that many people leave complaints about underfilling the tank, or some other deception. I personally avoided all of this, even once I filled up on creitech)).